Activity Zone

Get even more enjoyment from our series of What on Earth? timelines with our range of free resources, quizzes and activities. Try our new What on Earth? Timeline Activity Book, which contains 10 creative activities for children and parents aged 6 - 106! Get your FREE pre-release version below and have the chance to win our monthly £100 cash prize!

Timeline Collection Activity Guides!

Please download our series of free teacher Activity Guides for each of our Timeline Wallbooks below. Designed for Key Stages 2 and 3 in the UK and grade 3-8 in the US.

The Big History Timeline Activity Guide

The Nature Timeline Activity Guide

The Science Timeline Activity Guide

Activity Book

For a limited time, we are offering parents and children the opportunity to download a FREE pre-release copy of our forthcoming What on Earth? Timeline Activity Book which contains 10 open-ended, creative learning activities that are designed to promote learning through curiosity. All we ask in return is that you try them out yourselves and upload any work to us using the Activity Upload tab on this page.

As an extra incentive, each month we will choose the best entry and award a prize of £100 cash!

Please let us know what you think using the feedback form which you can access from the link labelled Feedback above.

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Brodie's dynamite Dino cards wins our £100 prize!

Wow! Have you seen this amazing hand-drawn set of Nature Top Trump cards from Brodie in Lincolnshire? A huge dinosaur fan and a talented artist Brodie’s set of cards impressed the whole team here at WoE?

The set includes a range of animals from the scorching Permian era to the present day (including his pet cat Jack). As a Dinosaur fan, most of the set is comprised of dinosaurs and creatures from the Mesozoic era.

“I was so surprised and happy to win! I chose to make dinosaur top trumps cards because I’ve always been fascinated by dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, plus I love drawing. I’m going to share my prize money with my sister and then I might buy some model dinosaurs and lego with my remaining money.”

Brodie and Jack

Brodie's Dino Top Trumps

Activity 10 develops a child’s research skills as well as numeracy, literacy and memory by asking them to create a deck of 50 Top Trump cards based on any subject from their favourite Wallbook.

Brodie’s Nature Top Trumps was inspired by the Nature Wallbook and his love of dinosaurs, animals and drawing.

“There is a wide range of animals, from as long ago as the scorching Permian era, to the present day. However, it is mostly comprised of dinosaurs and creatures from roughly the same time period, the Mesozoic era. My cards are all coloured in carefully and slowly. The cat card is based on my pet cat, Jack.”

Well done Sidney- our April winner of £100!

We loved receiving work from our upcoming Activity Book and have decided to continue with our monthly competition to win £100! April’s winner was Sidney from Grantham, Lincs who produced an amazing set of Shakespeare Top Trump cards.

“I decided to make my cards about Shakespeare because I’m really interested in theatre and drama. I’ve learnt loads more about his works and, although the cards are finished, making them has inspired me to keep learning more about Shakespeare’s life and plays. I’m thrilled that I won, I was so surprised! Thank you so much!”

Sidney also plans on sharing her cash prize with her younger brother, who inspired by her success is now creating a deck of Top Trumps of his own! Well done Sidney!

Sidney's Shakespeare Top Trumps

Activity 10 develops a child’s research skills as well as numeracy, literacy and memory by asking them to create a deck of 50 Top Trump cards based on any subject from their favourite Wallbook.

Sidney used her Shakespeare Wallbook and created a deck of cards for 50 different Shakespeare characters, using both the Wallbook and the internet to further research their personality traits. After all this work Sidney is now excited to continue her reading of Shakespeare!

“A Hydrogen Fusion reactor is necessary as our ever-developing world will find itself short of power when fossil fuels run out. If no suitable alternatives are found, people will find themselves without power, without communication and eventually without essential commodities. A Hydrogen Fusion reactor can change this.”

We loved the level of detail and amount of research that had gone into Loui’s proposal for an invention that really could help the world. on hearing about his success Loui said,

“Wow, thank you I’m delighted to have won. I have always been fascinated by the idea of Hydrogen Fusion, and now I’ve had an opportunity to present my interest thanks to What On Earth’s activity!”

Mahni's Timeline of Dartmoor

Activity 1 is about developing a sense of chronology. Most young people have a large number of facts in their brains, acquired from many different subject areas. This timeline activity lets children think about the order in which things happen.

Mahni took inspiration from activity 1 and created a timeline of Dartmoor starting 400 million years ago when Dartmoor was “under a big warm sea”.

Jacinta discovers the link between dinosaurs and birds!

Activity 3, is about weaving a narrative thread. Taking responsibility for the subject field, children learn to discover events that are connected to a theme and asked to assemble and visualise the timeline.

Jacinta decided to look at flying creatures for her timeline and included a Bat, Osprey and Archaeopteryx, which after a trip to the Natural History Museum she discovered is considered the missing link between dinosaurs and birds.

Loui's Hydrogen Fusion Reactor

Timelines allow children to build a narrative approach to history. Activity 4 builds on these skills and equips young minds to think long term about the future. The enhanced activity challenges children to create a proposal for funding for a scientific invention that can help the world.

“A Hydrogen Fusion reactor is necessary as our ever-developing world will find itself short of power when fossil fuels run out. If no suitable alternatives are found, people will find themselves without power, without communication and eventually without essential commodities. A Hydrogen Fusion reactor can change this.”

The Balloon Flight, by Lucy Rishton

Activity 1’s enhanced activity asks young minds to pick one of the 10 suggested events and write an article or story based on it.

Lucy has written a wonderful short story based on the first ever Balloon Flight

One extraordinary day, a teacher and an army officer flew in a large, blue balloon over the huge country, France. They had very normal lives until this happened. As they took their first step on top of the circular bottom of the balloon their hearts began to pound. Their names were also French, one called Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the other is named Marquis Francois Laurent d’Arlandes. They were just about to set off 3…..2…1 blast off they were 3,000 feet up in the illuminous sky. Not a cloud in site. They looked down and all the humans, they were all as small as ants. The howling wind was filling the passengers ears and blowing off the top hats. The balloon flight was only 25 minutes but probably the best minutes of their lives. They travelled around the western outskirts of Paris. They had a gigantic smile on their faces. The balloon was covered in patterns, which you may see in a church. There was crimson red ribbon hung round the sides and a picture of a golden duck almost as if it had been printed on the balloon. They were gradually going down as they eventually touched the concrete floor. They swiftly opened the door and stepped out. They both look up into the sky. Both of them had an image of themselves doing this again.

What's happening when?

Activity 2 allows young minds to focus on a particular time in history based on their own favourite creature or event. They are then asked to explore what else is happening around the time to broaden their knowledge and perspective of the world.

James focused on Nature and looked at four different species that were alive on planet earth at the same time.

Gemma's Flying Creatures

Activity 3, is about weaving a narrative thread. Taking responsibility for the subject field, children learn to discover events that are connected to a theme and asked to assemble and visualise the timeline.

Using her Nature Wallbook she created a timeline of different flying creatures that included a Giant Dragonfly, Bee and Butterfly.

Ellis' Sports and Science Timeline and the Digital Watch

Activity 1 is about developing a sense of chronology. Most young people have a large number of facts in their brains, acquired from many different subject areas. This timeline activity lets children think about the order in which things happen.

Ellis spent nearly 2 hours looking at the timelines to find the events in the pictures and then put them in the correct order with his Mum. He picked the digital watch to write about because he didn’t know anything about them and neither did his mum, so a lot of interesting research was required.

Ellis clearly spent a lot of time researching about the digital watch, his report included information about the first ever solid gold watch in 1972 to what countries use watches to play games today.

“The first digital watch had a L E D display. L E D means light emitting diode. The first L E D was made in 1907 so more than one hundred years ago. L E D`s were not found of any use until around thirty years later. L E D watches have red numbers. In England one person sold one of the 400 P1`s for £7,750.00.”

Well done to our Feb winner Matthew!

A MASSIVE WELL DONE from all of us at What on Earth to Matthew from Cheshire after winning £100 for his great British history quiz.

Matthew is the second winner in our £100 monthly prize giveaway. Our monthly prizes are open to any child who completes one of the activities in our Free to download Activity Book

On receiving the news that Matthew had won, Vicki, Matthews Mum said :

“That’s amazing! I have one very happy boy here! Thank you so much. He had so much fun creating the quiz and playing with the graphs, so to win as well is like the cherry on the top.”

As for our champ Matthew, well he’s looking forward to some shopping: “Thank you! I’m really excited and surprised to find out I’ve won! I enjoyed making the quiz and testing my friends and family but I didn’t think I would win – but I’m pleased I did! I don’t know what I’m going to spend the £100 on yet but I’ll save some and probably spend some on Lego.”

Well you certainly earned that Lego Matthew, enjoy!

Matthew created a great history quiz, using the British History Timeline, as well as recording his results on some great charts and graphs.

Don’t forget we still have one more chance in March to win £100 by submitting your child’s work online, using the activity upload button at the top of this page just like Matthews mum did.

Matthew's Quiz!

I chose the British History wallbook for my quiz, focusing on modern history as this is the period I’m most interested in. 11 people took my quiz. The scores ranged from 4 to 8, and the average was 6. I think it’s the right level of difficulty for adults, but maybe too hard for younger children.
Many people got the same questions right (or wrong), so I also made a graph showing the percentage of correct answers for each question. Everyone got questions 1 and 2 correct so maybe they were too easy. The hardest were questions 4 and 8.

Isabelle, Marley’s Mum, said there was shock and awe at the house when Marley discovered he was this month’s winner:

“Oh my goodness! That is amazing news. I can’t tell the whooping, holloring and joyful jumping that has been going on from Marley’s room and all around the house. I am worried the ceilings might fall down! Thank you so so much”, she said.

And as for Marley, well, he says he is literally over the moon: ‘WHOOP! Thank you so so so so much to the power of 100. I am absolutely over the moon. This project was the best ever.”

Patrick's tantalising quiz!

Patrick was excited to create a quiz and test his dad’s colleagues at work. He chose to use the Sport, British History and the Science Timelines. He spent a long time pouring over the timelines to devise the questions (Activity 7). He found it tricky to try to create a question out of a fact and so I helped him when he got stuck. His favourite bit of the activity was when his Dad called to get a tie-break question as to who would come second! He used the Shakespeare Timeline for that. He’s hoping to be a winner too!!

Eliot's robotic cooker!

I looked at the Science Wallchart and learnt about different inventions through history (Activity 4). I like Tesla and am learning about him. Then I thought of this Cooking Robot that makes all the nicest food in the world.

Eliot's Coat of Arms

I looked at the famous people back in history on the wall chart (Activity 6) and I did a coat of arms with Oliver Cromwell, Henry V, Elizabeth I and Julius Caesar. I have been learning about Monarchs and the Romans so these are my favourite.

Neve's Coat of Arms

We brainstormed different famous people through history (Activity 6). I thought of my favourites which I have been learning about this year and found them on my wall calendar then created my coat of arms.

Neve's ingenious kettle!

I did Activity 4 and to prepare I spent some time looking at my Big History book on my wall and the Science and Engineering book. Then I came up with my idea to build a Four-Hand Kettle.

Marley's Amazing Top Trumps!

As you can see, Marley from Devon has spent hours and hours creating his own fabulous deck of cards based on famous men and women from history (Activity 10). They are brilliantly researched, and beautifully hard-drawn. All of us here just want to sit down an play the game .Congrats Marley – great job!

Pippa's magical timeline!

Pippa (6) decided to do Activity 1 in her own way. She used the blank squares to find events of interest (Big Bang) and then decided to create her own timeline which included the Big Bang, Milky Way, and more. She insisted it be shared.

January 2017

We will shortly post the best activities submitted during January 2017. At the end of the month we will announce our £100 cash prize winner!

Activity Upload

If you have completed an activity that you have created based on our Activity Book then please submit it as a PDF, JPEG or any other media file (not exceeding 5 MB) using the form below.

Once you have uploaded your activity you should receive a confirmation email. IF YOU DO NOT THEN YOUR ACTIVITY HAS NOT UPLOADED SUCCESSFULLY – probably this is because your file has exceeded the size limit. If you wish to upload a bigger file then please use a service such as wetransfer.com and send it directly to chris@whatonearthbooks.com

At the end of January, February and March 2017 we will choose a winner who will each win a £100 cash prize!

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Activity Book Feedback Form

Activity Feedback Form

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Take the What On Earth? Shakespeare Quiz!

“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool”

Think you know Shakespeare? Impress us with your knowledge of The Bard and his work.

What on Earth? Sunday Times British History Quiz

Test out your knowledge of British history in our brain-teasing 10-question multiple-choice quiz.

Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Online Challenge

Test your general knowledge with our 50-question Magna Carta multiple-choice quiz, celebrating 800 years in the fight for freedom from 1215 to 2015. Every completed entry gets a special discount off a What on Earth? purchase – and the better your score, the greater your discount!

Science Crossword

Prove yourself to be a scientific genius by completing the Science crossword. All the answers to the clues can be found in the Wallbook of Science. So grab a lab partner and see how many you can answer.

Ultimate Science Quiz

Get in the lab and take the ultimate science quiz. 70 multiple choice questions to test even the most scientific brain. All the answers to the quiz can be found in the Wallbook of Science. Tackle the quiz and maybe one day win your own Nobel Prize!

Ultimate Shakespeare Quiz

Take the ultimate Shakespeare challenge with these 70 multiple choice questions designed to test your knowledge of the Bard. All the answers to the quiz can be found in the Wallbook of Shakespeare. Just don’t let the ghosts and fairies distract you from your quest!

Ultimate History Quiz

The ultimate history challenge to test your knowledge of the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day. With 100 multiple choice questions about the planet, life and people this quiz will really challenge you. All the answers can be found on the Wallbook of History.

Ultimate Nature Quiz

The ultimate Nature challenge with 100 of the trickiest questions to really test your knowledge about the story of life on the planet. All of the answers to the multiple quiz questions can be found in the Wallbook of Nature. Good luck!

Timeline Collection Activity Guides!

Please download our series of free teacher Activity Guides for each of our Timeline Wallbooks below. Designed for Key Stages 2 and 3 in the UK and grade 3-8 in the US.

The Big History Timeline Activity Guide

The Nature Timeline Activity Guide

The Science Timeline Activity Guide

Magna Carta Chronicle Activities for KS 2 & 3

A selection of three free activities, including lesson plans, curriculum-mapping grids and creative ideas for classroom discussion at KS 2 and KS 3. All three incorporate the the use of the Magna Carta Chronicleacross Literacy, Citizenship, Art and History.

What on Earth? Schools Brochure

Please download our brochure for more information about the range of What on Earth? books and products designed to help you stimulate the inherent natural curiosity in every student. You will find details about the books, the amazing cross-curricular Wallbook Wonderbox and the variety of talks and workshops that we can provide for your school. For more information about anything in the brochure, please email info@whatonearthbooks.com

Nature Heads and Knees Quiz

Fun, interactive activity for the classroom testing your students’ knowledge about life on the planet. Call out the questions and ask the kids to put their hands on their heads for answer A or hands on their knees for answer B. Those who get it wrong have to sit down. Last one standing wins! Answers can be found on the Wallbook of Nature.